Since July last year I have been back working at QUT as a Library Adviser. For the first six months I was fortunate to receive a fixed term contract to work back at my old QUT library at Gardens Point. It was great to go back and see everyone again! I loved coming back to the library and working with librarians and students to help solve queries and help support study, it was like coming home. Though the faces didn’t change all that much I had to remember and learn a lot of new things. Coming back this time around I had a more substantive role and was able to sink my teeth into projects more. Not only this but after 6 months I was lucky enough to secure an ongoing contract at QUT Law Library, which is where I have been working part-time since the start of the year.

Some of the key things I have learnt and/or worked on as a Library Adviser include –

• Research support – helping and liaising with academics with regards to setting up their ORCID profiles. This really helped me network and understand research biometrics and grants better.
• Videos – I created and collaborated with librarians with regards to several short videos on how to use complex Business databases including Marketline, Passport GMID and PRS Country Data. I used various software including Articulate Reply, Screencastomatic, Adobe Premier Pro & Audition and Audacity. This was a great opportunity to develop my video making skills and made me confident to offer my video making knowledge in my new role. While at the Law Library I have made several videos for Justice students to show them how to use CINCH and AGIS databases.
• Captions – Working with a small team I helped to create captions and transcripts for the majority of QUT Library’s videos that appear on YouTube. To do this I developed my YouTube skills and also my understandings of accessibility of the videos and the difference between captions and transcripts. I also learnt about accessibility with regards to QUT obligations legally and what the library needs to have in order to comply with legislation.
• Teaching – I have taught and assisted in several classes over the last few months. I taught, by myself, generic library workshops to students. I also co-taught an introductory legal research workshop several times at the start of this semester. I have found that these teaching experiences are very similar to my training experiences at Madame Tussauds London. My time there made me confident in my abilities and slightly less scared to run a class by myself. I really enjoy teaching these workshops and have received positive feedback from my colleagues, so hopefully I can keep doing more as my experience grows.
• Law – working at the Law Library (and completing a Law Librarianship unit) has really deepened my interest and knowledge of the legal profession. I can now find Caselaw and legislation confidently and am wrapping my head around AGLC3. It is an interesting field and I hope to learn more about it while working at the Law Library.

Being a Library Adviser is great. I love the face to face client contact I have working on the help desk and the continual learning that I am doing. I am utilising many information skills including information retrieval when I assist in locating cases and legislation, information management when assisting the Liaison Librarians with the management of the collection. This was also seen when I assisted in reorganising the Law database page from QUT Library homepage. The databases had to arranged in a way that was easily accessible to both students and academics and promoted and aided in the preferred legal researching techniques. Information literacy and organisation skills are also used when creating captions and videos for clients to ensure that information is easily accessible for all.

I am sure this is a role that will continue to push my professional development and I cannot wait to see what else I can do and accomplish as a Library Adviser!

Go back to Part D – Professional at Work